New Conservatory.

[tut]

Definitely a sun lounge if we go ahead, will start looking at brochures and examples of builds.

tut

[Scotty C]

http://www.tradeadvisor.com/

[Kelvin]

Looks at location and ponders sun lounge...

Paint a sunny scene on the ceiling.

[haggis catcher]

I can tell you NOT to deal with. As we had a bleeding nightmare with them. Anglian

[point n squirt]

I can tell you NOT to deal with. As we had a bleeding nightmare with them. Anglian

Not the first time i've heard that. Look for someone big enough to handle the job but small enough to care.

[tut]

Silly thing is that we had double glazing put in at TT in 1995, fantastic job, the five man crew from Living Design in Glasgow lived up here for three weeks in Aberdeen and I still have a photo of them in the jacuzzi at 2300 when they had worked through the night in heavy snow to finish off the Velux windows in the lounge. Anglian took them over a few years later. Biggest job that they had ever done.

Likewise in '96, Bains from Old Meldrum built the Conservatory, again one of the biggest that they had built, but have now gone out of business.

tut

[istoo]

C7steve summed up the differences, a sun lounge is more scottish to be honest and will give you the sun you want plus maintain some warmth. Depending on your funds and size of extension you want to do there are a fair few designs you could do. I could recommend an architect (stopped doing domestic stuff a while ago) and as far as builders go for your new area, I would recommend Gary Fowlie in Huntly reliable and non aberdeen prices and has built a lot of exotic stuff. Also a car nut... I am not about for a week or two but i could pop out and give you some free ideas

For architects, Gregor and Carol Small. Out between huntly and kieth, i think you are out that way...
http://csarchitect.co.uk

Personally i would go architect & builder myself.

[istoo]

Conservatories also creak and groan with temperature changes. Or maybe it's just me.

both perhaps, but dissimilar materials, plus the conservatory builds up and looses heat a lot quicker than stone clad house. Sunlounge construction to match the house with glazing manages the task a lot easier. Never went to Tut Towers but saw the for sale ad. If you want something that size, if you have the space and funds, i would suggest a linear sun lounge and you can also put in roof pitch glazing to give you some vertical views if you still miss the sky!

On the builder / architect front i can tell you in person who not to go for.

Are you morayshire or aberdeenshrie tut? Moray is a heck of a lot easier to get planning

[tut]

Thanks Ian, some useful suggestions there. No idea about prices nowadays, not looking for something ornate just a reasonably sized sun lounge to fit in with the house, budget at present would be around £15K.

I am about three miles from Keith, Carol lives five miles from me so if we go ahead I will give her a call. First job is some extra fencing to stop Khan from chewing sheep. Also getting the road(sic) and driveway resurfaced so it is Elise passable by a local business, owns the pub and Chinese in Newmill, so that will use up £8K.

tut

[mwmackenzie]

A Sunroom with full glazed walls will require a steel portal frame to carry the load of the roof structure, £15K won't get you much in that respect. A compromise is a conservatory with a 'Supalight' roof structure. http://www.supaliteroof.co.uk/ It's lightweight so can be fitted ontop of a conservatory wall system and will work out considerably cheaper than a sunroom. They're actually really well spec'd with u-values as low as 0.15W/m2K which is as good as the current building regs will require. Regs are changing in the autumn, they're going to be a barsteward regarding thermal efficiency and ventilation so get your warrant application in soon Planning will be site dependand, if youre floor are is less than 8m2 you will not need a warrant for the build.

If you want to chat any any advice give me a shout as I do this day in day out for a living..

Cheers

Mark

[tut]

Thanks Mark, as we do not need it for extra space, it would be a bit of a luxury, but we have an ideal location for it off the end of the kitchen which has double French doors. What we would get from 900ft high is fantastic views across the valley below to the Cairngorms in the distance.

Will get in touch if we decide to go ahead in the near future. If we go for planning permission now to beat the new regs, how long would that last for before construction began? The house is 220 sq/m and due to our location I doubt if there would be a problem. Seem to remember when we had the one built at TT that you did not even need PP if it was less than 10% of house size, and more than 25m and out of sight of a road.

tut

[mwmackenzie]

you don't always need planning permission Tut, it's site specific and what and where you're building on it. If the floor are is over 8m squared you will need a building warrant and it's these regulations that are tightening up regarding thermal efficiency and ventilation. If you pop in for a building warrant now, it will take about 10 weeks or so to get granted then you have 3 years to build it, you can even extend this for a small fee if you don't manage to build in that time

[mwmackenzie]

You will need external grade door to remain off the kitchen, does the kitchen have another window in it? If you're building something with a solid roof off the doors you will need to provide daylight and ventilation to the room. You'll need a min of 1/30th of the floor area open-able for ventilation and 1/15th or the floor area as a window for natural light. You don't need to worry about this if you use a glass roof though, just if you're building with a solid roof

[tut]

No probs, the French doors are large external ones, the kitchen has three good sized windows.





tut

[mwmackenzie]

Good to go in that case...